Wednesday morning briefs

Over 190 rockets landed in Israel today. The ones fired by Hezbullah, that is. One landed in Jenin. That would be way farther than any rocket to date. The palestinian reaction?

The Fatah member related that local residents cheered when they heard the rocket fall and saw the resulting flames. “Even if it were to fall on our heads, it wouldn’t have spoiled our joy. All of us here are praying for Hizbullah’s success and victory,” he said.

Oh, yeah, these people want peace.

The rockets killed a man in Nahariya. Shrapnel, actually. And by the way, the scumbags in Hezbullah add ball bearings to their rockets to increase the damage. Of course, you won’t hear a peep about this from the people screaming “MASSACRE!” at Israel for Qana.

Oh, this’ll work: European leaders are going to talk to Syria and Iran to stop Hezbullah. Pardon my while I laugh hysterically. How stupid can the EU get? It is in Syria and Iran’s best interests to keep this fight going, and Hezbullah supplied with weapons. Syria has been smuggling weapons to Hezbullah even as the IAF is destroying them.

BRUSSELS – European governments are reaching out to Hezbollah’s foreign backers, Iran and Syria, in an attempt to engage them in a solution to the Lebanon war by recognizing their importance for regional stability.

While the United States, Israel’s main backer, is unwilling to talk at a senior level to either country – seen as “rogue states” in Washington – European foreign ministers have no such taboo if dialogue can help extinguish fires in the Middle East.

But beyond making Syrian and Iranian leaders feel respected, it is not clear what the Europeans can offer to persuade Damascus or Tehran to lean on Hezbollah guerrillas to stop firing missiles into Israel or accept eventual disarmament.

It’s very clear to me. They can’t.

According to new intelligence obtained by the defense establishment, Syrian President Bashar Assad, alongside senior military officials, is directly involved in the attempts to smuggle weapons and rockets to Hizbullah in Lebanon.

In addition, the extent of Iran’s intimate involvement in Hizbullah attacks is also starting to emerge. According to the defense establishment, the reason Hizbullah has not fired long-range Iranian-made Fajr missiles at Israel is due to Teheran’s opposition. Israel now understands that without direct orders from the ayatollahs, Hizbullah is not allowed to use Iranian missiles in attacks against Israel.

Rockets are still falling on the southern front, also on an everyday basis. One man was hurt in Ashkelon today. Sure, Ehud, talk about more concessions now. Now’s the time, you moron. When rockets are being launched from evacuated settlements, yes indeed, talk about more concessions to the terrorists. Meryl’s prediction: When the war is over, the Olmert government falls the second it tries to withdraw from any more settlements.

And anyone thinking of a unilateral cease-fire can think again. Not gonna happen. And that operation deep into Hezbullahland?

“The objective of the covert operation was to demonstrate that we can operate deep inside Lebanon and wherever we want,” Halutz said, rejecting Lebanese reports that IDF commandos had dropped out of helicopters in Baalbek to specifically abduct senior Hizbullah member Muhammad Yazbek. “We weren’t there to obtain something specific.”

Halutz added that during the late night operation, IDF commandos had captured “loads of intelligence information” on Hizbullah. The operation, he said, was part of the IDF general plan of action against Hizbullah, which included not only ground operations in southern Lebanon, where thousands of troops and reservists were currently taking up positions in villages, but also deep incursions into Lebanon like the one Tuesday night at Baalbek, 200 kilometers from the northern Israeli border.

Here’s hoping they got Syrian and Iranian fingerprints to show to the UN. Not that it would make much of a difference, but still—evidence is good.

I’ve just realized that the news is being delivered with a bit less snark lately. I will work harder to bring back the snark. Here’s one for you:

“Does this mustache make me look like a dork?”—Syrian Dorktator Baby Assad

Create your own caption in the comments.